General Question

Where can I find a basic list of english phrases one might use with a toddler?

My colleague works with preschool kids with hearing impairment here in Hong Kong. Usually she speaks in Cantonese, but she gets the occasional English client. As her mother tongue is not English, she’s asked me if I know of any resources that might help her speak stuff like, “Will you pick up the ball for me?” and “Do you want to go to the toilet?”

For the most part her work is working on the children’s hearing impairment, but she figures that which she’s at it she might as well speak to the child in a more fluent manner/with rich vocab.

Any idea where she could go? I’ve googled “preschool English phrases” etc, but don’t seem to be able to find a simple list of things.

Also any books or other suggestions where she could improve her preschool English would be great. There’s a lot of resources for adult, business English, etc, but she just wants the most basic toddler phrases….

3 Answers

Try buying some good children’s books that are written for the age group. No sense reinventing the wheel. She will get a good sense of what is the right amount from reading some of those. But we tend to just talk normally, not dumbed down, and our children will pick out what they can get from it. If they need to ask they do, but our 15 mos. old understands like a champ even though she only says a couple of words.

Try searching for resources that are used with children who have autism. I have an autistic student in my class this year (2nd grade) and a lot of the therapy that the speech therapist does with him involves practicing simple conversational phrases. The therapist gave me some resources (workbooks, coloring books, Bingo games, etc.) that use the phrases and have pictures to go with them. I wonder if that sort of thing would be helpful for your colleague.